RayT Loc: Crestwood KY

Cony, HP got into some legal trouble a couple of years back over their "photosmart" printers giving you "low Ink" messages when the tank was still 1/2 full. I have one and I continue to print until I see some sign of ink outage, like a dramatic color shift or banding. My cartridges go a LOT farther now.

Lorendn Loc: Jackson, WY

So true! I had all three color cartridges show "low ink" after three attempts to use the "clean cartridges" tool. Each attempt printed about 1 square inch of each color.

I am no longer a fan of HP printers.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Epson

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Here's an alternative to ink: We went through the same frustrations and finally decided to go a different route. We now have a basic color laser for everyday printing (photo quality sucks, but toner never dries up!) and an old Kodak 1400 dye-sub printer for final output (picked it up for $50 on Craigslist). The 1400 prints 8.5x14 with a fixed page cost of roughly $0.75 and the output is phenomenal. The film never dries up and the mechanics of the printer are amazingly simple. When you need it to print, even after weeks of sitting idle... it does! It's probably a more expensive option per page, and definitely slower, but for us, it alleviated all the frustration of dealing with clogged print heads, dried ink, and unpredictable performance. We simply needed something we could rely on, and for the past 3 years, we haven't had one single issue with the 1400 (previously I was thrilled to go even a month without an issue).

Trout man Loc: Alabama

I'm from a large hospital and campus here in B'ham, AL where I retired from. I was in office machine repair and system analysts. There aren't many machines that I haven't worked on including laser b & w and color and inkjets form full sheets to small personal ones and copiers.
I have a HP Photosmart C-8180 that has to be 5 or 6 years old. Great inkjet and never had a problem with it. Has card slots and is wireless and Bluetooth but I don't use the wireless or Bluetooth. It takes 6 ink cartridges from black, yellow, magenta and light mag, cyan and light cyan. If one of the color cartridges goes out you can still print B & W. If they expire just hit the touch screen OK and it will print. I've had the black in for over two years and it's only half empty. The colors are 1/2 the size of the black and they aren't cheap. About $50 for a set of color but it prints a great photo plus I can scan photo's into my PC from the full bed scanner. They probably don't sell this model anymore I'm sure but something close maybe. My wife buys the $29 dollar inkjets from Wal-Mart for her Mac and the photo's are really pretty good. When they run out of ink she just buys another $29 printer when she catches them on sale. They come with ink and it's less expensive to just buy the printer rather than the ink cartridges. Because that's where Canon, Epson, and HP make their money on. Color LaserJet printers have really come down in price some for less than $200. Ink cartridges last a lot longer but then again are expensive. Shop around for supplies before you decide on the printer. Most printers today print terrific photos so hope I helped a little.
Tom

hopthecop Loc: salisbury md

some of the printers now come with "starter" ink....like half the ink of a full cartridge...cute,ain't it???????? :thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown:

Hummingbird-eyes Loc: Burlington,ON. Canada

Try blankmedia.ca, they have some printer ink, I have used them for two years now and no problems whatsoever. Shipping may be a cost that I do not get into as I pick up at a drop off depot.
Hope it helps.
By the way I have a Epson printer.

Trout man Loc: Alabama

The all do and always have; even color LaserJet's. That's where the money is. You can refill a lot of them that's why they incorporated the dated ones. They will expire even if sitting on the shelf. Like you said, cute isn't it
Tom

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I get a lot of printing done, before any cartridges are getting low, I love my printer and I also like how it uses the inks. (Epson Stylus 3880 pro).

Rbrylawski Loc: Tampa, FL

I too am completely finished with HP printers. Mine would no longer connect to my home router, even after replacing the router and getting a replacement printer from HP. I spent over 15 incredibly frustrating hours on the phone with HP, without any resolve. So I got Best Buy to take my 6 month old HP printer back and replaced it with a Canon Pixma MX922. The set up, operation and printing on the Canon is such an improvement over the HP, it's simply amazing.

Still, printers are ink thirsty. No question about it.

MidnightManiac

I have tried a few third party inks and refill companies. None of them can compare to the genuine cartridges. Color quality is not the same. Most ink printers in best photo mode use large amounts of ink. FYI using third party inks voids the warranty on the printer. Was doing research and found the best photo printers for what I needed believe it or not were made by Kodak. First I purchased a Kodak 6400 about 3 years ago (not ink) small format printer, have never had a problem with it. Each roll of paper and ribbon prints about 500 prints. You do need an SCSI card to run the printer. If you want the more recent version it's the Kodak 6800 and for large format printing the Kodak 8800, which is my next printer purchase of choice. These printers put a coating of lamminent over top to prevent fingerprints etc. I also have a Kodak Office Hero 6.1 for everyday wireless printing and scanning. This is also a photo printer which I have used it for and does a good job. This is an opinion after years of using Epson, Canon, and HP printers which I will not go back to. For thoughs that need prints on the fly try Pandigital no ink needed, it's in the paper.

Unclewiggley Loc: Winter Haven, FL

I have a Epson Artisan 710. To anyone who might have the same printer and installed a CISS system, my question is, do you have to make any modifications to it if you install a CISS system?

Thanks for any answers.

cgchief Loc: Jarrettsville

I have an Epson WorkForce 30 that I purchased with CIS fully installed; works great.
Contact Cobra Ink Service.com for full information, Epson only.

Lorendn Loc: Jackson, WY

I thought this thread died long ago but since it is here I want to give some follow-up on my dead black channel on my printer.

First, I bought a very fast, and very low cost/page Brother laser printer for the bulk of my office work - it's great. Second, as I was about to throw away my (like new) HP inkjet printer I read a post that the print head could be 'saved' but running it under hot water (something HP said to specifically avoid - "DO NOT get print head wet." Sure enough a 'gob' of black washed out of the print head and it works normally again now. So I have two printer/scanners - one that is fast and inexpensive to operate but monochrome and the HP that is costly to operate but prints photo color.